Can I suggest a future event? 

Perhaps our characters and a few npcs decide to trust Rowan and follow him down his path, while the rest of the caravan decides to stay on the main road. While traveling down the smaller path, the group is accosted by a few stray goblins and worgs, which leads to distrust towards Rowan, since this path was supposed to be safe. As they finally reach the town, they find that the rest of the caravan was massacred while passing through the goblin camps, just as Rowan had said, building a little trust between the trickster and travelers.